Generally, people who are unable to take a bath or shower for themselves such as the senior, serious patients and the handicapped require the carers' assistance to take a bath or shower. With the recent increase of the older population, patients unable to wash themselves have been increased and the carer services are overloaded. Various devices have been introduced to enhance patient convenience or carer convenience.
Out of the various devices, a shower carrier is the equipment that enables a patient to be moved or washed in a state of lying thereon.
A conventional shower carrier includes a bed for a carer to elevate a patient when a patient is moved to take a shower.
Referring to FIG. 1, the elevation of the bed may be realized in various methods. Typically, for the elevation of the bed, there are provided with an elevating module 40 driven to expand the length in an up and down direction, a fixing housing 30 having the elevating module 40 fixed thereto, and a moving housing 50 movable in an up and down direction according to the expanded length of the elevating module 40. A bed is provided on the moving housing 50 and the bed is elevated along the elevation of the moving housing 50.
Referring to FIG. 2, the elevating module 40 is longitudinally formed and it includes a fixing part 43 having a screw thread formed in a circumference thereof and a moving part 44 engaging with the screw thread to elevate along the rotation of the fixing part.
A motor 41 may be provided under the fixing part 43 and such a motor 41 may rotate the fixing part 43 directly. However, a motor 41 used in the conventional shower carrier to elevate the bed a heavy load is applied to may be positioned adjacent to the fixing part 43. The motor 41 includes a power transmission part 42 realized by various gear assemblies such as a decelerator. Such a power transmission part 42 is coupled to a side of the motor 41 to transmit a rotational force of the motor 41 to the fixing part 43.
Accordingly, the weights of the patient and the bed may not be directly to the motor 41 and damage to the motor generated by the load may be prevented. Also, compared with the motor directly connected to the lower end of the fixing part 43, the motor having the power transmission part can be a motor having a smaller capacity used to elevate the bed.
However, the elevating distance of the elevating module 40 provided in the conventional shower carrier is determined based on the length of the fixing part 43. To enlarge the up-and-down displacement, the length of the fixing part 43 has to be increased disadvantageously.
Moreover, when the motor 41 is arranged next to the fixing part 43 to drive the motor effectively, the length of the fixing part 43 has to be larger than the length of the motor 41. Because of that, there might be an empty space formed beyond the motor 41 which cannot be used.